'Tis the season for migrations north, so I went looking for sandpipers on the beach yesterday. I found plenty.
Most were sanderlings, but a few dunlins were in mixed species flocks.
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| Sanderlings |
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| Dunlin with the black belly and longer bill (in center) |
Brown pelicans put on a diving performance as they were fishing just past the mouth of the bay. Unfortunately, the format of my video renders it unlinkable. So, here are some pelicans resting on the beach.
Enjoy your local birds!
Late winter/early spring is the season for herring to spawn in Yaquina Bay.
Today, armed with new cameras, we went out along the south jetty to photograph the seabirds who came to feast on herring eggs.
Thousands of birds were between the jetties: a couple of species of gulls, scoters, some loons, and our favorite -- harlequin ducks.
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| (Panasonic Lumix) |
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| (Panasonic) |
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| (Sony RX100) |
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| (Sony) |
Video taken on Panasonic, by Bori.
On our lanai and just beyond, we have been visited by a rather broad selection of birds and the occasional mongoose. Part of this is because Bori has been feeding them, first bits of crackers, then peanuts. They have not become dependent on these little handouts, in fact they have largely abandoned his offerings. Today he realized that a neighbor is feeding them something that they like better.
Here are a couple of the visitors.
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| The chicken, who has come to our screen door looking for Bori, and perched on several chairs on the lanai. |
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| Mynah birds |
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| Saffron finches |
We leave on Thursday. Aloha!
We haven't seen any sharks or been told to get out of the water due to their presence, but sharks images abound. And I just heard on the radio that sharks are happily feasting on a dead sperm whale that currents are moving towards the island, so they aren't too far away.
Here are a couple sharks that I've encountered.
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| Mailbox shark |
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| Ritzy shark |
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| This is our car shark that travels with us |
This morning, we took a small-boat, snorkel excursion to Captain Cook Monument. It was a lot of fun, and we saw lots of nice fish, and had close-to-the-boat encounters with spinner dolphins, some of which were spinning, and others of which were wake surfing.
This monument marks the spot where Captain Cook (the great British explorer and cartographer) was killed by Hawaiians after a series of unfortunate events in the late 18th century.
Here are some of the fish that we swam with.
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| Yellow tang (lau'ipala) |
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| Threadfin butterflyfish (kikakapu) |
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| Racoon butterflyfish (also kikakapu) |
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| White-spotted surgeonfish ('api) being cleaned by Hawaiian cleaner wrasse |
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| Yellowmargin moray eel (puhi paka) |
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| Multiband butterflyfish (also kikakapu) |
This morning, we headed north to Hapuna Beach State Park. This beach is a lovely, white-sand beach with easy entry into the water, and great for swimming. There are a few rocks in the middle of the beach, but they are easy to avoid. We had the honor of swimming with two sea turtles today. Always a joy!
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| South end of Hapuna Beach |
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| North end of Hapuna Beach |
Off the beaten path, at the end of a 2-mile, narrow, winding road that drops at least 1000 feet in elevation from the highway, lies a lovely fine-grained, dark sand beach. Today's lack of surf made it a perfect spot to jump in and swim or snorkel.
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| Looking south |
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| Looking north |
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| Remains of an old pier |
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| Lava rocks just north of the beach |
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| The back of the beach, beneath basalt cliffs |
